Naming The Nameless

• Source: The Global Times
• [21:14 May 04 2009]
• Comments

In an earlier interview hosted by the Internet forum Tianya Club, Ai said, “When so many lives are lost all of a sudden, if we use only abstract Arabic numbers and provide no personal details, it shows a lack of respect.”

Halfway through the interview, the conversation was halted and the chat log deleted.

Ai said he believes the alleged connection between the shabby quality of school buildings in Sichuan and the high student death toll is the reason why the local government has delayed publishing a list and carrying out a full investigation. Many of the researchers have written about the tofu dregs (poorly constructed) school buildings in their diaries. But Ai said attributing blame is not his primary concern at this stage in his work.
“First we must complete the detailed list. All the other problems will become clear after we have that,” he said.

Ai said he began publishing the list of names on March 12, 60 days before the first anniversary of the magnitude 8 earthquake, but his research has been going on since before the Chinese New Year.

Two of his colleagues from Fake spent a month and a half in Sichuan looking for information on more than 800 youngsters and produced more than 80 hours of video footage.

“We made about 150 phone calls to different departments of the Sichuan government, asking them to provide a complete list of the children who died, but to no avail,” Ai said.

A transcript of a phone call made to the leader of a “Stability Maintenance Team” in one Sichuan county, was published in one of the investigation diaries.

During the call, the unnamed official said, “Why do you care about the list if you don’t have a special purpose? This is none of your business. I seriously doubt that you’re a special agent sent by a hostile country.”